Intrinsically motivated norm compliance and the sense of obligation

What is the motivational force of the sense of obligation that drives us to intrinsically comply with social norms even in the absence of external incentives? To integrate recent theoretical and empirical research aiming to illuminate the motivational power of psychological obligations, we combine the theory of basic psychological needs with recent work in intrinsically motivated reinforcement learning. This enables us to provide a fresh perspective on the relationship among existing accounts of normative motivation and to identify key questions to guide and structure future research.